Bruins Take Advantage on Power Plays; Beat Canadiens 4-2

About the Author

Steve Silva, a lifelong Massachusetts resident, joined Boston.com in 2004. He's covered the world championship runs of the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics, the Boston Marathon, and more as part of the BDC and Boston Globe sports teams.

The Bruins scored twice on the power play in a span of 32 seconds in the second period and went on to defeat the Canadiens 4-2 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the best of seven series.

Loui Eriksson made it 4-1 with 5:48 to play in the third, capping off a big night for the Soderberg-Eriksson-Fraser line that has scored three of the past five Boston goals.

Reilly Smith and Jarome Iginla each scored their fourth goal of the playoffs on second period power plays to send the Garden into a frenzy as the Bruins were on top 3-0 at the time.

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P.K. Subban made it interesting late in third period, scoring a 6-on-4 power play goal that made it 4-2 with 2:29 to play, but the Bruins shut the door afterwards to put the Canadiens on the brink of elimination.

At 1:04 into the second, Reilly Smith scored on the power play gives the Bruins a 2-0 lead. Smith deflected a Dougie Hamilton shot from the point. The goal snapped an 0-for-39 stretch for the Bruins against Montreal in postseason play. It was the first power play goal for the B's against the Canadiens since Michael Ryder scored in Game 2 of the 2009 conference quarter final on April 18, 2009.

Then at 1:36 into the period, Jarome Iginla was fed a beautiful backhanded pass from Torey Krug and knocked it through the 5-hold on Carey Price to give the B’s a 3-0 lead at the time.

The Bruins are now 2-for-4 on the power play after the Iginla score, and are now 8-for-28 on the PP this postseason (28.6 percent).

“I had a couple of good looks on the power play,” Smith told CBS Radio between periods. “It was good to see that last one go in… We got back to the set that was working earlier in the year.”

Going forward into the third, Reilly said: “It’s tough ice out there, gotta be smart with the puck.”

The Garden crew has been dealing with slushy ice all night after a humid day in Boston.

At 14:39 in the second, the Canadiens scored on their fourth power play of the night when Plekanec fired through a crowd in front of Rask from the left wing circle and Brendan Gallagher deflected it into the net. Brad Marchand was in the penalty box during the score after getting called for a hold on Lars Eller.

Four of the six goals in the game came on the power play.

Later in the second, Dougie Hamilton dove to cut off David Desharnais on the breakaway as he was closing in on Rask.

Soderberg nearly went in alone on Price but could not get his stick on the puck as Subban dove in to get a piece of the puck.

At 8:40 into the second, Subban and Lucic nearly came to blows after Subban started shoving him on the boards. Lucic showed tremendous discipline by not going after Subban and risking the penalty.

Carl Soderberg put the Bruins on top 1-0 with the first playoff goal of his career in the first period.

After a close icing call on Tomas Plekaniec, the Bruins scored first at 13:20 when Matt Bartkowski dumped the puck behind the net, Loui Eriksson passed it over to Soderberg who knocked it in from the left wing circle.

The B's started the second period with 1:44 on the PP as Plekanec went to the box with 16 seconds left for interference on Tuukka Rask after we nearly had a brawl in front of the Boston net. Rask made a sprawling save after a giveaway, and Plekanec barreled into him trying to poke the puck home and was called for interference. Rask responded by giving Plekanec a shot right back.

This was the second first period goal of the series and the Bruins are 5-0 when scoring first in the playoffs. The team that scored the first goal has won each game of the series so far.

The other story of the first period was penalties, something we didn’t see much of in Game 3. The Bruins were able to kill off three Montreal penalties while being 0-for-3 on their first three power plays.

Rask earlier made big pad save on Max Pacioretty but Dougie Hamilton went to the box for interference at 14:46.

With 3:00 minutes to go in the first, Rask was charged with a delay of game penalty for knocking the puck over the glass. Fraser served the penalty. Rask is looking much more comfortable in net with his stops tonight than he did in the shutout win in Montreal.

Earlier in the period, Reilly Smith broke through the middle and ripped a shot that clanged one off the left goal post, the 11th time the Bruins have hit the post.

At 4:00 into the game, Bartkowski got hooked by Pacioretty in the Canadiens’ end and the Bruins had their first power play, but they failed to score. Zdeno Chara and Jarome Iginla had a couple of chances, but nothing got past Carey Price.

Bartkowski got nabbed and went to the box for holding Lars Eller, that infraction came along with minors for Brad Marchand and Brendan Gallagher for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Plekanec then went to the box for interference for taking down Daniel Paille who was coming after P.K. Subban in the neutral zone.

The Bruins and Canadiens were called for one penalty each in Game 3 and for three combined penalties in Game 4. But the whistles were blowing early and often tonight.